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Putting Tendulkar’s Hundredth Ton in Perspective

Associated PressStudents in Chennai held a large poster of cricketer Sachin Tendulkar after the batsman scored his landmark 100th century against Bangladesh, Friday, during the Asia Cup.

A century of centuries. Sachin Tendulkar finally achieved the landmark that had eluded him for more than a year – that of one hundred international centuries. The landmark knock, however, came amid a loss, as Bangladesh pulled off a dramatic upset and infused life into an otherwise dull Asia Cup.

Unfortunately for the success-starved Bangladesh cricket team, the incredible milestone achieved by man known as Little Master overshadowed their win.

The sheer magnitude of Tendulkar’s achievement can be encapsulated by the fact that the next player in the list has 29 fewer centuries. Tendulkar’s centuries have come in all sorts of situations: while braving back pain, battling it out in a sandstorm, and while scoring the first ever 200 in one-day internationals. They have come in all conditions – from the cold and wet English summer to the bouncy wickets in Perth and Cape Town to the dust bowls in India. And they have come over a period of 23 years. To put that in context, the man started his career in a year when the U.S.S.R. still existed. What’s more remarkable is that a fifth of his centuries have come against the dominant side of his time – Australia.

Over the past few months, there have been many articles that have suggested that the hoopla around the landmark is completely unnecessary. There is a degree of validity to the argument that it’s only being celebrated because it’s a nice round number.

Recently, the decline in stature of the one-day international format has led to some of Tendulkar’s greatest achievements being overlooked. But back in the mid-90s, success in one-day cricket provided relief to success-starved Indian fans. More often than not, Tendulkar had a key role in the successes that came India’s way.

Some argue that Tendulkar’s landmark is not extraordinary because 19 of his centuries have come against minnows like Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. But that theory holds little ground — he has simply scored against all opposition. Don Bradman’s record of 29 centuries, after all, does not come with an asterisk noting that 10 of those centuries came against teams like the West Indies and India, which were the minnows of his era, the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Beyond the triviality of statistics and comparisons, consider this astonishing fact: the man has carried the expectations of one-sixth of humanity on his shoulders over the past decade. He has done this with a degree of maturity and grace that has eluded heroes who have not even had to deal with a fraction of the adulation or attention he has received. The negativism of the past one year cannot wipe out the lifetime of memories that the man has given literally millions of Indians.

It is a little unnerving that the man who has been one of the few constants through most of my childhood and adult life will probably be calling it a day soon. Now that the proverbial monkey is off his back, here is hoping that he is allowed the luxury of freedom to play out the rest of his career without the madness that had surrounded this landmark.

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